Author: Karl Haloj, DML

A world-travelling, polyglot linguist, Dr Haloj has been involved in virtually every facet of the "language profession" for over three decades. He earned his Doctorate of Modern Languages (DML) at Middlebury College. His areas of expertise include: romance, celtic and iroquoian languages; language acquisition; language pedagogy; and critical discourse analysis. But his love of language and cultures often leads him well beyond the limits of his own specialities, thereby giving him the opportunity to keep learning and to renew his vision of the world through "beginner's eyes".

Like many other areas of study, the field of L≥2 (second, third, fourth… language) development is experiencing rapid change associated with advances in relevant technology. The growing popularity of “language learning apps” may be one of the more obvious indicators of this trend. These apps seem to open the door to language study options that would be inconceivable in a traditional (20th century type) scholastic language program: for example, several apps offer upwards of 70 language courses to English speakers – this far exceeds the 4 offered at my high school, when I was a student! But whether or not this actually translates into improved L≥2 development for users of these apps has yet to be convincingly demonstrated. In fact, some linguists, like Donovan Nigel’s post to Mezzofanti Guild blog, suggests that today’s apps may actually be detrimental to language learning.Continue reading “3 Simple Tips for Making the Most of Your Language Learning App”→

In recent years societal views about multilingualism in the US seem to be shifting. In the past, children growing up in a home where a language other than English was spoken were thought to be at a disadvantage as compared to their monolingual classmates. I remember heated discussions with my own son’s elementary school teachers when they would recommend that I stop speaking to him in French; they believed the exposure to another language would hinder his acquisition of English!